Nelson Mandela’s ambulance broke down en route to hospital

PHOTOS: Nelson Mandela retrospective

South African anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela shown in a file photo dated 1957 posing with his wife Winnie during their wedding.

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Former South African President Nelson Mandela makes an appeal that the women of Africa not continue to bear the burden of HIV-AIDS alone at the international 46664 Aids concert in George, South Africa, March 19, 2005.

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South African President Nelson Mandela (L) and US singer Michael Jackson clasp hands at a press conference at the President's home Genadendal in Cape Town 23 March 1999.

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South African president Nelson Mandela (2nd R) shares a joke with Prince Charles (3rd L), his grandchildren and members of British pop group Spice Girls at his residence in Pretoria, November 1, 1997.

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South African President Nelson Mandela (c) flanked by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini (l) and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi gather at Hluhluwe Game Reserve in Northern Natal, 30 April 1995. Addressing the centenary celebration of the resort, Mandela appealed for political tolerance so there can be peace in the province.

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South African President Nelson Mandela (r) holds the arm of former apartheid hardline President Pieter W. Botha as they meet 21 November 1995. P. W. Botha, whose iron-fisted rule of South Africa from 1978 until 1989 earned him the nickname "Great Crocodile", received the South African President in his house in Wilderness.

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South African rugby captain, Francois Pienaar (R), is congratulated by South African President Nelson Mandela (L) after South Africa won the Rugby World Cup final against New Zealand 24 June 1995 in Johannesburg.

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South African President Nelson Mandela chips a rockin the quarry where he endured hard labour for 12 of his 19 years in South Africa's notorious prison on Robben Island prison off the coast of Cape Town, Feb 10, 1995.

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South African President Nelson Mandela visits his former cell in notorious Robben Island prison off the coast of Cape Town where he spent 19 of his 27 years in jail, Feb. 10, 1995.

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African National Congress leader and President-elect Nelson Mandela (C) and deputy presidents Thabo Mbeki (L) and Frederik W. de Klerk (D) receive the cheers of parlementarians as they enter the inaugural sitting of South Africa's first all-race parliament in Cape Town, May 9, 1994. One of Mandela's first handshakes among the 400 members was for his Zulu rival, Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

African Nation Congress (ANC) President Nelson Mandela listens 23 April 1994 in Soweto Stadium to an official of his party, seated next to an election campaign poster, three days ahead of South Africa's all race national elections.

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African National Congress (ANC) president Nelson Mandela is surrounded by men wearing traditional Zulu dress, at a cultural day in Durban, 24 October 1993, attended by 50000 people.

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Nelson Mandela smiles after being unamimously elected to succeed African National Congress (ANC) president Oliver Tambo, on July 5, 1991 in Durban.

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South Africa's president Frederik W. De Klerk (L) poses with the world most famous prisoner anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela, in Cape Town's government residence, 09 February 1990, two days before his release from jail. Frederik de Klerk announced Nelson Mandela his release from jail.

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Eight men, among them anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela, sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial leave the Palace of Justice in Pretoria 16 June 1964 with their fists raised in defiance through the barred windows of the prison car. The eight men were accused of conspiracy, sabotage and treason.

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A file photo dated 1961 of South African anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela.